Parallel World Pharmacy Vol 2 Chapter 3

 
 “Hmm? …… You apply it with this first?”
 In front of the mirror, she picked up the cream that very much interested her.
 “Yes, apply it to your face lightly and thoroughly. Next is this. It’s ok if you just dab the powder. Just make sure to completely cover it.”
 She applied the powder earnestly on her skin, that was coa.r.s.e like an egg.
 “Your skin texture rejuvenated like a 5-year-old!”
 “By the way, Falma, from now on, if there art any new products of Medique, thou shalt come and present it to me.”
 While she was dabbing her face with loose powder, using the highest quality makeup brush, the Emperor of San Fleuve, Elizabeth II, informed and reminded him.
 “Hahaaaa!”
 Ah, for a 24 years old woman who can use the strongest Divine Art in the empire. The Empress, is certainly sensitive to fas.h.i.+on trends.
 Falma understood. So he worked out some praise.
 “Your Majesty, your skin is already very beautiful. I think that the whitening face powder is unnecessary.”
 “Hahaha, thou praises made us uncomfortable.”
 The Empress seemed to be in a good mood while looking up, she held a high-quality folding fan encrusted with jewels covering the lower half of her face.
 
 “It is a Royal Chartered shop with an investment from the Empire. Is it not only prudent for the invention to be presented to Her Majesty first?”
 “Eh!?”
 That was the interaction between Falma and his father. So, he went to the Empress in a panic to pay his dues. Considering the big picture, the rare and trendy 2nd cosmetic brand store should be presented to the Empress before opening. The young page beside the Empress, Noah, moved his mouth spelling out “Idiot”. The Empress was gently stroking her cheeks cheerfully, she couldn’t take her eyes away from the mirror.
 “Hmm…… This is so wonderful!  We should go to the next royal ball just like this. We will be more distinguished among the women.”
 Falma was apologetic because all the women had bought the product too, so there won’t be that much of a difference. He appreciated that he was permitted to do the presentation this late, because of this, he presented some more beauty products to the Empress, though she was already very beautiful to begin with. Furthermore, the ingredients were safe as well.
 “This is our newest product. The medical lip gloss is gentle to the lips. Your Majesty, you will be the first to try this one.”
 “Ooh, This one is sparkling.”
 It was a new medical lip gloss that was jointly developed by the Apothecaries of Cosmetic Brand Medique, and was based on Falma’s original idea. The natural color s.h.i.+ned like a pearl. It was different from the flat red paste.
 “Hmm, this is good.”
 It seemed she liked it.
 
 “Your Majesty, thank you for restricting the use of lead, mercury and other toxic substances in products that are applied on the human body.”
 When the presentation was over, Falma expressed his grat.i.tude over the proclamation of this reform edict. Falma had made a list of chemicals that should be prohibited immediately, and reported it to his father. The authority of the Empress was the same as before. Ever since the divine power meter incident, as well as the pharmaceutical knowledge Falma had shown, both the Empress and Bruno began to slightly suspect that Falma was possessed by some supernatural existence beyond human intelligence. Thus they could not disregard Falma’s words anymore. Incidentally, the Empress, and even Bruno have not noticed that Falma didn’t have a shadow.
 “We were surprised that those were harmful. For mercury and even lead, there are already numerous medicines that contain these ingredients available commercially.”
 “It is as you said, your Majesty.”
 “We will have everything that was used by the female attendants in the imperial court disposed of.”
 “That sounds good.”
 That was what Falma advised. Within the imperial court, not only the female attendants but also the infants had been smeared with makeup that was toxic. Thinking about their safety, they should prohibit it immediately.
 “On the other hand, thou shop of cosmetic brand, Medique, seems to be promising.”
 “It is because of your benevolence that it is performing well, however…”
 Regarding this, there had been a bit of trouble. Due to the fact that the cosmetics the shop sold were only perfume and soaps, there wasn’t any opposition from the apothecary guild which was their main rival. However,
 “Thee not need to sayeth anymore. Cosmetic stores have been appealing for deregulation almost every day. They are impa.s.sioned too.”
 It was as expected for these merchants who sold traditional products to be in pandemonium. if there was a prohibition of products that contained white lead and mercury. Just by removing the harmful ingredients alone, would cause the product to become a dried fine powder that wasn’t white anymore and by extension, won’t be the product the customer wants anymore
 “We will compensate the cosmetic merchants, but we does not prefer the cosmetic market to be an oligopoly. In addition, we are worried that numerous a.s.sociated industries will go bankrupt. That’s why compet.i.tion is desirable.”
 Although the Empress was somewhat of a muscle-brain, her sense of politics was normal.
 “It is as you said. Therefore, I will leave a part of the manufacturing technique to your Majesty, so please share this information. Also, I will draw up some manufacturing process of other industrial products that are using mercury and white lead. I will compile a few instructions regarding the safe handling of these ingredients.”
 Falma not only promised to reveal the recipe for the soap, but also the trade secret in UV reduction technology, the face powder, and basic cosmetics. The recipe will leave out Falma’s name and will be released in the name of the Empress.
 “After that, please find a way to raise the price of thee cosmetics. Although it’s good that thee are selling it at a bargain price, however other merchants will die this way.”
 It was not different from dumping, well not really at that level, but a person on the same line of business selling at a higher price would go bankrupt. A n.o.ble must be a strong person, but they must not trample the commoners who are weak, was what the Empress taught him.
 “I fully understand. I will establish a ranking for cosmetics and price accordingly.”
 Since it was expected that compet.i.tors would be on the verge of bankruptcy, a part of the profit from Medique (Other World Pharmacy’s cosmetic brand) would be used as a relief fund for the cosmetic merchants.
 
 Will they survive? Will they retreat?
 Each merchant will need to start developing new face powder to survive, the apothecaries from Medique, who were the pioneers, would guide them. The merchants would then start manufacturing powdered and liquid foundations. They won’t be able to compete with the quality of the CC cream and loose powder from Medique, but each customer still had their own preference for brand, cosmetic ingredients, and fragrances. Thus many varieties of face powders began popping up. Merchants that sold cheaper than Medique had started to appear. Each merchant had their own combination of beauty ingredients, you could differentiate it by their ingenious way of combining herbs. There were also many conservative n.o.bles who liked the non-translucent and flat finish.
 On the other hand, there were some merchants who had withdrawn from manufacturing basic cosmetics and focused on producing perfumes.
 Thus, a situation where Medique monopolized the market was more or less avoided. Furthermore, it allowed an expansion of the market since commoners were now able to afford cosmetics.
 
 Now then, regarding the lead and mercury that had nowhere to go now. The Empress gave instruction, that she received, to develop it as a colorant for oil painting with the condition that they had to wash their hands if they made contact with it.
 As for the other toxic substances, they were taught that they were limited only to industrial use.
 
 Recently the Empress employed a sage as an adviser, although it wasn’t clear the real reason why though, the sage seemed to give the Empress various pieces of advice. And so rumors began to spread.
 However, they weren’t able to guess who this sage was.
 Who would think that the young store owner of the Other World Pharmacy would be able to establish himself into the important sections of politics, n.o.body would think of this. They still seemed to think that the young store owner only commercialized and sold his father’s knowledge. In due to the common knowledge that his father was a famous Royal Court Apothecary who invented things. Those who had received Falma’s prescriptions even just once,thought “Perhaps, it’s him” but…
 
 One day after Falma examined the Empress as always, he examined Imperial Prince Louis. Activating his Diagnosis Eye, he saw spots of blue light illuminating inside the prince’s mouth.
 AH……, Falma’s face became complicated. He nervously murmured silently.
 “Tooth Decay”
 The blue lights went out. A problem that Falma had been dragging his foot on.
 Cavity, it’s tooth decay.
 Sugar was expensive in this world, there were few commoners who suffered tooth decay caused by sugar. However, a n.o.ble had many opportunities to eat sweet cakes. In a manner of speaking, the cavity was declared as a status among the n.o.bles. Due to the fact that Falma was brus.h.i.+ng his teeth every day, he never developed any cavities, however there were many n.o.bles who didn’t know the importance of brus.h.i.+ng their teeth.
 
 Incidentally, Simon the steward was suffering from tooth decay, it reached the point that the tooth was pulled out because of nerve pain. Falma was helpless as the cavity had spread too much.
 “The crowned prince liked sweets, and disliked brus.h.i.+ng his teeth.”
 Noah had a troubled expression. The silver lining was that the teeth that had cavities were milk teeth. The prince was only 6 years old, he was at the age where his milk teeth would begin to fall out.
 
 Falma pretended to entertain Louis by playing billiards, he then broached the subject.
 “Your Highness, when you were eating food and bite with your teeth, do you feel any toothache?”
 “No, not really.”
 Only that much? Seems to be light, Falma estimated. After playing billiards, Falma stopped the Prince who was about to leave to eat candy. Fruit flavored candy was the Prince’s favorite.
 “Your Highness, would you please open your mouth wide?”
 At Falma’s words, the Prince was on guard.
 “You may have cavities.”
 “Stooooooooooop!”
 The Prince doesn’t want to hear it and ran away while panicking.
 “Seize the crowned Prince!”
 Noah chased after the imperial prince who dashed with all his might, furthermore, the courtier gave chase too. It was a lively experience like it was the best time of their life. “Pursue the Imperial Prince! It’s for the treatment of his cavity!” said Noah, as his yell whipped the courtiers into action. It was so much like a comedy sketch that Falma was astonished. It seems like this was happening every day.
 And the manhunt began inside the Imperial Court. The prince was desperately resisting his tooth being pulled out.
 “There you are!” “You’re not going anywhere!” “He’s trying to escape to the courtyard!”
 He hid behind the fountain, pretended to be a sculpture, and tried hiding behind shrubbery. The exhausted Louis finally tripped and fell down. it was Falma who tripped him.
 
 “Uuggh, so I could only get this far! Such regret!”
 The prince shouted those words as if he was a defeated and shamed warrior.
 “Your highness, please open your mouth. I will not pull out anything today.”
 At the same time, Falma made his promise,
 “Your Highness, please be prepared. Can’t believed there is a ruckus, is it your cavity? I will skillfully pull it out. Hey! stop it already.”
 The Chief Court Physician, Claude, spoke out and was approaching with pliers on hand. He seemed to be confident about pulling out a tooth.
 “Noooooooooooo!”
 Louis hid behind Falma while trembling.
 
 “Honorable Chief Court Physician. Please leave the treatment of his Highness to me.”
 Falma held up both of his hands in front of Claude and pacified him.
 “Oh, so you are the greenhorn apothecary, Falma. Just watch my skills, the strength of a child can’t pull out a tooth.”
 Although Claude looked like a good person, he seemed to have decided to use the pliers once.
 As for Falma, he was examining the inside of the prince’s mouth, the teeth that had cavities were black but he confirmed that it only affected the enamel.
 “It’s still in its initial stages, you may not need to pull them out yet.”
 “It’s rapidly getting worse. If it reaches the root, it will cause a high fever. It may become fatal.”
 Claude was disputing why Falma doesn’t want to pull out the tooth.
 
 “Chief Court Physician, what do you think the real cause of tooth decay?”
 Falma raised his finger as he asked the question.
 “That is…… that. What?”
 “That is, living creatures feeding of sweeteners that dissolve the tooth.”
 “What are you talking about!?”
 The Chief Court Physician looked like he was annoyed.
 “But there are different types you see. When you look at it using a microscope, I think you will definitely understand that tooth decay is caused by infections from small living creatures.”
 If it’s in the early stages, it hasn’t fully penetrated yet, don’t you think you have to check it first? Is what Falma was trying to say, so the Chief Court Physician changed his mind.
 
 “Your Highness, I will prepare a medicine to stop the progression of tooth decay tomorrow.”
 “You won’t pull it out?”
 The prince looked at Falma as if doubting him.
 “Yes, this time, I won’t.”
 
 The next day, Falma prepared the medicine and went to the Imperial Court. The Empress heard the situation, “Because thee have neglected to brush thee teeth, thee have to pull it out!” was her severe comment. Because the Empress almost never ate any sweets, she didn’t seem to have any cavities. Brus.h.i.+ng the prince’s teeth was the maid’s work, but the Empress was well aware that when she was not around, the prince would often try to escape, spouting selfish things, and not listen to the maids.
 
 “I will now apply the medicine.”
 The prince was lying down on a high-quality bed with canopy, obediently opening his mouth, as he left the treatment to Falma.
 For early stages cavity, when applying a high concentration of fluoride at the tooth enamel, it will create a layer of fluorapat.i.te which re-mineralize the teeth and can further suppress the progression of cavities.
 It was explained to the Empress and the court physicians that it was a medicine that stops cavities and strengthens the tooth.
 “Oho.”
 Claude moved his face really close, as he suspiciously took notes of Falma’s hand movements.
 “I will not pull it out this time. However, Your Highness, I may have to pull it out next time.”
 Regarding the treatment of sc.r.a.ping off the cavity on the affected tooth, it would be difficult for Falma who didn’t have any knowledge in dentistry.
 “Uuu…… I will brush my teeth from now on!”
 The prince was trembling as he shook his head.
 
 “I will remember what you said.”
 When Falma thought the prince would say that, he pulled out a wooden box from his bag with a rustling sound.
 “I prepared an oral hygiene set for you.”
 In this world, they brushed their teeth with a cloth and a sponge, and it was common for them to clean the gaps between the teeth with a toothpick.
 “It’s a toothbrush with bristles made of horse’s hair.”
 He first took out the toothbrush.
 Nylon toothbrushes were popular, but it was not necessarily the best. Even in j.a.pan, there were still toothbrushes made from horse or pig’s hair being sold. The advantage was that it was gentler towards the gums.
 Falma then showed one after another a toothpaste containing fluoride, dental floss, and a tongue cleaner. When Falma taught the prince on how to use it, he was listening intently.
 “Hey Falma, are you going to give thee a set?”
 “Yes! I will at once!”
 Falma forgot again to give one to the Empress, and she got angry.
 This set, I wanted you to spread widely to the populace, is what he told her…… The Empress bowed, and slowly swung her head left to right.
 What? Is that a catcher’s sign? Combination of pitches is that bad!?
 Falma was thinking what was that all about when,
 
 “The inventor has the right to receive the profit. However, don’t overdo it this time.”
 The Empress advised him not to create a monopoly.
 “Yes, I fully understand.”
 There will be a plan to showcase new technology one after the other from now on, so that Falma would not provoke those so called oppositions in every industry. So the Empress established the “Technology Bureau”. New technologies and new inventions would be managed by the Technology Bureau, and if there were any requests for information (except parts that were deemed as trade secrets), they would be released given that reading charges were paid. As for registering technologies, they could do it under their real name or they could be anonymous. Falma registered the microscope, cosmetics, and fluoride products under anonymity for the local manufacturers.
 
 And so a month after the Otherworld Pharmacy released the “Oral Care Set”, they were now prepared to sell the individual components of the set. The people who were not keen on brus.h.i.+ng their teeth jumped at it, lead by the n.o.bles who liked sweets. Each time they got cavities, their tooth gets pulled out. People who had barely any teeth left had somehow run out of all conceivable means to keep their teeth.
 
 “Some of those sets are expensive. I want something affordable.”
 The commoners too, wanted to reduce their expenses. Thus Falma prepared a cheap version. It was the Fusa-yoji (A toothpick on one end and a wooden brush on the other) that was used during the Edo period in j.a.pan, fluoride powder and dental floss set.
 
 “If it’s this, we can afford it too!”
 At the storefront and at Medique, they opened a brus.h.i.+ng and oral hygiene lecture. The lecture was very popular, it was full every day. Instead of Falma teaching, Ellen was the one teaching the open lecture. It was because Falma wanted to devote himself to his profession as an apothecary of this world by diagnosing, prescribing, and compounding of medicines.
 Because Elizabeth had said they could freely use the Palace’s forum, they held a symposium regarding cavity prevention for people who weren’t able to fit in the store. Citizens with free time on their hand gathered like it was a festival.
 And so, many merchants had followed suit and made generic medicines because commoners bought an oral care set.
 
 By knowing the proper way to brush, people’s awareness had changed. When heard it was possible to prevent infectious diseases such as pneumonia, they particularly began to do it with zeal.
 Regarding the prince, he was made to control his intake of sweets by the order of the Empress.
 “I have to control myself on sweets for a while. Ah, but I want to eat it……”
 A good idea floated in Falma’s mind to solve the prince’s problem.
 It was a candy with xylitol which doesn’t cause cavities.
 He anonymously registered that too with the Technology Bureau.
 “It almost doesn’t contain any sugar that causes cavities. It will be hard for cavities to grow.”
 “Is it sweet!?”
 “By the way, if you eat too much, you’ll be in the toilet quickly.”
 The prince said he was exceedingly pleased about the candy with a unique refres.h.i.+ng sensation.
 
 As an aside, Old man Jean, who was a regular at the pharmacy, began taking a liking in eating the sailor’s candy with the mixture of Xylitol.